California Native Landscape

California Native Landscape: The Homeowner's Design Guide to Restoring Beauty and Balance is written by Greg Rubin and Lucy Warren, and published by Timber Press (Portland London, 2013). This book has been a valuable resource in my quest to learn about California native plants that are suitable for our San Francisco Bay Area yard, with its clay soil, sloping aspect, and partial shade. Rubin and Warren are horticulturalists who really understand gardening in the West.

 

The Introduction describes the new horticulture, which respects climate, environment, drought, and the need for low maintenance. Chapters 1 - 5 describe the California environment and its deterioration, soil, design and garden style. Chapter 6 describes plant selection – looking at plant communities (such as coastal sage shrub, chaparral, oak woodland, pine forest, mixed evergreen forest, desert, coastal strand, grassland, riparian, pinyon-Juniper woodland, redwood forest); and plant categories – trees, shrubs, ground covers, perennials, vines, and monocots. Chapters 7 - 11 describe installation, care, diseases, weeds, and fire, and ends with a vision for California landscapes of the future. The end matter includes books and articles, native plant sources, online resources for native plants, a list of regional chapters of the California Native Plant Society, and a list of California native plant sources.

I especially appreciated the plant descriptions of chapter 6. Within a category, such as shrubs, they divide the plants by size. They describe each plant, including species and genus, common name, physical description, its plant community, and the landscape usage for the plant. Photos show the details of leaves and flower and general form. They also mention when plants are compatible with oaks. For example, the medium-size Coffeeberry (Rhamnus californica) is described as a medium size shrub (2 to 3 feet high) with sculpted evergreen leaves, red stems, large colorful berries. It attracts scrub jays; can be used in Japanese gardens; is found in chaparral and coastal sage scrub plant communities; and is a foundational shrub with year round interest. Several varieties are mentioned including Tranquil Margarita, Seaview, and Leatherleaf. This is valuable information!

Spring Spruce Up

Spring is a great time to get out in the yard, and get things spruced up for summer. Here are a few things I like to do in our Bay Area yard.

Get out the pruning shears, and cut back some unruly growth. These sharp shears are especially useful on the small maples and rhododendron bushes. They are light weight and easy to use.

Pruning unruly growth

Go on “oak patrol.” The uneaten acorns stashed by squirrels in the fall start to sprout, and some of sprouts I’ve missed in previous years really start to take hold. I love the mighty oak tree in our front yard, but multiple oaks are just not sustainable in our tiny yard.

Oak patrol to remove acorn sprouts

Add organic material to the soil, replenish the raised bed with organic material, and maintain the drip system. Every year I am optimistic about planting a small vegetable garden, even though the neighborhood deer are the ones to benefit.

Add organic material and check the drip irrigation system

With the yard spruced up, it is time to fire up the charcoal grill. I have a few new grilled vegetables recipes to try, and might even try using the pizza stone (although I hear it is difficult to keep the heat up using charcoal).

Spring at Mountain View

The San Francisco Bay Area is absolutely beautiful in the spring, especially after some rain. We have had a few downpours of rain in the last month – not enough to build up the snow pack in the mountains, or to end the drought, but enough for the plants in our Mediterranean climate to spring into action. The hills green up, and the plants blossom or leaf out as part of their life cycles.

I recently visited the Mountain View Cemetery to follow up on a few plants that I wanted to see in the spring. The cemetery is known for its massive tulip displays. How impressive to see the bright yellow and red tulips (and what a challenge for the gardeners, because the deer love tulip blossoms)!

Tulips in full bloom at Mountain View Cemetery

I also wanted to see the pergola that is covered in wisteria. Just as I hoped, the wisteria was in full bloom and active with bees. The pergola always offers deep shade, but this visit it was all the better with its fragrant purple blossoms.

Pergola dripping with Wisteria

Finally, I saw the Dawn Redwood, a deciduous tree, all leafed out for spring. What a treat to see the tender green leaves glimmering in the sunlight (I have also seen this tree after its leaves have turned to reddish brown in the fall).

Dawn Redwood with tender green laves

 

Botanical Gardens: Tilden Regional Park

The Tilden Regional Parks Botanical Garden is another great botanical garden in the San Francisco Bay area. The park is located in Wildcat Canyon in the North Berkeley hills, and covers ten acres. I visited in March for the first time.



The garden is devoted to plants of California. The park is divided into ten sections that represent ten distinctive natural regions of California (Southern California, Valley Foothill, Santa Lucia, Channel Islands, Franciscan, Pacific Rain Forest, Sierran, Redwood, Sea Bluff, and Shasta-Klamath); and three subsections (aquatic plants, coastal dune plants, and the Antioch Dunes of Contra Costa county). Plant specimens are planted in sections corresponding to their origin by region. Regions are color coded on the map, and garden beds are systematically numbered and associated with each region.

James B. Roof Visitor Center

 In addition to this great organization is the fantastic, color-coded signage for each section and planting bed. Signs provide Latin and common names, county of origin, a catalog number, and indication of whether the plant is rare or endangered, or native to this region.

Color-coded signage (blue for Sierran region)

A docent lead tour is hosted every Saturday at 2:00, or you can follow the color coded map. Garden tours can be arranged for groups. I chose to wander the garden paths, sit at my leisure under the Redwoods, observe the plants, and take pictures.

Path through the manzanita

The ceanothus was abuzz with bees

When I visited, the redbud, ceanothus, and trilliums were in full bloom, along with many other plants. You can visit every month of the year and see something different in bloom.

Wake Robin (trillium)	California Pipevine
  Giant Wake Robin (trillium)	Fuchsia-flowered Gooseberry

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 Once a year the park holds a plant sale, which is open to amateur gardeners and professionals. The plant list is available online prior to the event. The plants are grown in numerous greenhouses scattered throughout the grounds.

Several greenhouses used to populate plants for the garden and annual plant sale

I recommend this botanical garden to learn more about the incredibly diverse native plants from California. I was excited to find examples of plants from my research for our yard—ground covers, grasses, and vines—and to be able to compare native variations from different regions in the state. For example, I found the ground cover Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) from multiple regions. Below are four - a local native, and three others from San Mateo, Sonoma, and Mono Counties.  The local native version would be ideal, if I could find it at a native plant sale, but the others could work if I found the right environment in our garden.

Trailing Bearberry (local native)	Trailing Sand Berry
Kinnikinnick	Convict Lake Manzanita

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This botanical garden is a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to see plants in situ with other members of its plant community and similar terrain. It is also great for anyone who just wants to spend a few hours in a beautiful place. Benches and shade abound for rest and reflection, and a creek runs through it.

Address: Wildcat Canyon Road and South Park Drive in Tilden Regional Park Berkeley, CA Web Site: http://www.ebparks.org/parks/tilden/botanic_garden For other botanical collections in the San Francisco Bay Area see: http://www.edenbythebay.blogspot.com/2015/02/botanical-collections-of-bay-area.html